The UNISDR

As I began brainstorming about what to blog for this week, I began thinking about our past class discussion about negotiation among nations regarding resolutions. With that in mind, I began to look at several well-known resolutions of the UNEP and came across something called the UNISDR in a majority of the resolutions including the Geneva mandate.

 The UNISDR is the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, other wise known for   Disaster Risk Reduction or DRR as mentioned in Chapter Five for tomorrows reading . The UNISDR does exactly what we have been discussing for weeks; it serves as the focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of disaster risk reduction. The purpose of the UNISDR is to educate nations on what to do to mitigate the effects of natural disaster and to provide a way to mitigate such disasters. However, the UNISDR does not have money to give. Instead, it receives voluntary donations from donor nations and the World Bank to foster its purposes. The UNISDR focuses on food growth, where and how homes are built, what kind of government is in power, how the financial system works and even what what is taught in schools. 
Watch the Video Below for the UNISDR’s mission:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iugLHrcs_fM    

In addition, the UNISDR largely focuses on the changing climate and its affects on disaster in general. As well as, a strong focus on the belief that each decision and action makes each nation more vulnerable to disasters - or more resilient to them. Because of this, the UNISDR really focuses on its infrastructure and food growth. Which brings up an interesting tie to our reading for tomorrows class -- Chapter Five in Disasters without Borders. Chapter Five states that our changing climate affects disaster risk reduction significantly as the our climate continues to change everyday. The climate affects DRR because the altering global weather patterns provoke changes in agriculture and food production, which cause greatly harm nations economies. What is a nation to do if its agriculture sect is ruined tied with a failing economy? What is the purpose to UNISDR taking action now if the climate is going to change everything? How can the UNISDR improve on its practices knowing about climate change? As Chapter Five states disaster risk reduction is the first line of defense in adapting to climate change. So long as the UNISDR can combine both disaster risk reduction policies with climate changing policies, then the UNISDR will be successful. There has already been an example of this in the Hyogo Framework (in which the UNISDR had a role), a 10-year action plan with the goal of making the world safer from natural disasters with the impact of climate change in mind. In fact, a clause of the Framework states that climate created disaster should be taken into account when considering DRR.
The UNISDR is also currently working on the “Making Cities Resilient” project, which addresses issues of local governance and urban risk to disaster. They educate cities, invest, and then report on progress. All cities below are involved.

So while there is all of this progress within the UN, not only within the UNISDR but also within the World Bank and other DRR organizations, such as the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, it is interesting to think how climate change can completely change the playing field and completely destroy any progress made by such organizations. But again, DRR is the only line of defense against climate change and the only thing that can make a difference. While climate change can hurt agriculture, the whole point of the UNISDR is to educate nations on how to change its agricultural methods and so on and so forth with education and infrastructure. Not to mention that due to the weak link between climate change and natural disasters, many nations have been on board with the UNISDR's policies.  Many nations have been on board because they have seen the effects that disaster can have on a nation. 
With that said, it is interesting to think that the UNISDR has no enforcement power whatsoever.  This means that, nations do not have to financially support this project, and they do not have to let the UNISDR help them. Yet, many nations and cities do because they known how serious of an issue this is. Even though there are differing ideas within each nation; times like these cause nations to negotiate and come together for a common good... exactly what we spoke about in class last week, negotiation is key.